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Posted: January 28, 2008 6:31 PM
Romney, McCain Trade Attacks in Florida Battle
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On the eve of Florida’s Tuesday primary, front-runners Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney unleashed harsh criticisms of one another.

“He has an enormous disadvantage when it comes to the topics of changing Washington or fixing our economy,” Romney said of McCain, as reported by the Associated Press.

“If you ask people, ‘Look at the three things Senator McCain has done as a senator,’ if you want that kind of a liberal Democratic course as president, then you can vote for him,” Romney told campaign workers, according to the Washington Post. “But those three pieces of legislation, those aren’t conservative, those aren’t Republican, those are not the kind of leadership that we need as we go forward.”

McCain had his own words for Romney regarding a liberal agenda: “As the liberal governor of Massachusetts, he raised taxes by $730 million dollars,” McCain said, according to the Post. “Just take a look at his record as governor … Certainly his big government mandated health care plan for Massachusetts, which is now half a billion in the hole, is certainly not conservative.”

“One thing we should give Governor Romney credit for, he is consistent. He’s consistently taken both sides of every issue, he has consistently flip-flopped on every issue,” he said to reporters Monday.

The two candidates are currently in a statistical dead heat in the state, according to a recent Reuters/C-SPAN/Zogby poll, which has McCain at 31 percent and Romney at 28 percent.

As the last contest before Feb. 5’s 21-state vote, Florida is poised to position GOP candidates heading into Super Tuesday.

Trailing McCain and Romney are former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who has largely ignored previous contests to make Florida the focal point of his pre-Feb. 5 campaign strategy.